July 25: The Carpenters Top the Charts

On this day in 1970, The Carpenters, the iconic pop music duo consisting of New Haven-born siblings Richard and Karen Carpenter, experienced the first major breakthrough of their musical careers as their second album, “Close to You,” reached #1 on the Billboard charts, where it remained for the next four weeks.

Born in 1946 and 1950 respectively, Richard and Karen Carpenter enjoyed a happy childhood in their suburban New Haven neighborhood, where they attended local public schools and frequented nearby Lighthouse Point and Fort Nathan Hale parks. From an early age, Richard displayed an incredible talent for music at an early age, becoming a predominantly self-taught piano virtuoso by his early teen years. At 14, he began taking advanced piano lessons at the Yale School of Music with the intention of becoming a professional performer. Karen Carpenter idolized her older brother and, following in his footsteps, developed her own musical talents as a singer and percussionist as a young teenager, often practicing with Richard in the basement of their New Haven home.

In 1963, the Carpenter family moved to southern California, and six years later, A&M records signed a deal with Richard and Karen Carpenter after hearing them perform together on a demo tape. Richard’s talent for musical arrangement and performance combined with Karen’s smooth, soulful contralto voice proved to be a winning combination. Following the success of their second album, “Close to You,” in July 1970, they remained a dominant force in the American pop music scene for well over a decade, earning three Grammy awards, performing twice at the White House, starring in their own television series, and touring worldwide before Karen’s sudden, tragic death in 1983. To date, the Carpenters remain one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold over 90 million albums.